REMASTERED:  Building Your Personal Brand, with Chris Dessi | (Branding, Career, Social Media, Business)

REMASTERED: Building Your Personal Brand, with Chris Dessi | (Branding, Career, Social Media, Business)

Author: Southwestern Family of Podcasts - Southwestern Family of Companies September 8, 2026 Duration: 19:21
Chris Dessi, MS., Founder & CEO of Silverback Social, is a TEDx speaker, personal branding expert, author and keynote speaker. His latest book is titled Remarkable You: Build a Personal Brand, and Take Charge of Your Career. In 2012, Chris ‘s debut book titled Your World is Exploding: How Social Media is Changing Everything and How You Need to Change with It shot to #1 on Amazon’s Hot New Releases. He regularly appears on CNBC, CNN, Fox News, Good Day New York, & FOX BUSINESS’s Varney & Co. He has been quoted in Mashable, & has delivered a keynote to the United States Marines aboard the Intrepid Sea Air & Space Museum. His event the Westchester Digital Summit has been featured in Forbes Magazine. His creative personal branding has been featured in Fortune Magazine. He’s an editorial contributor on Inc.com. Show Highlights: Personal branding is the idea of stepping out into the proverbial world and saying I’m an expert at what I do. @chrisdessiA limiting factor for me was that the only people who knew I was good at my job were my clients and my boss. @chrisdessi For me, the first step in personal branding was to create a blog. @chrisdessiWhen executives of an organization are building their personal brand properly, it can only amplify the organization. @chrisdessiPersonal brand building is about appropriate content with a strategy and definite focus on achieving something. @chrisdessiCompanies are afraid of personal branding because they don’t want to be out-shown by their executives. @chrisdessiIt is our jobs as the head of an organization to make sure we are giving our employees the tools, infrastructure and systems so they don’t leave. @chrisdessiWe all have something important to share with the world. @chrisdessi To find out more about Chris Dessi and building your personal brand or to grab your own copy of his latest book visit: christopherdessi.com The Action Catalyst is a weekly podcast hosted by Dan Moore, President of Southwestern Advantage, the oldest direct-sales company in America, and Partner with Southwestern Consulting. With more than 45 years in sales leadership and marketing management, Dan has a wealth of knowledge to share on how to make better use of time to achieve life, sales, and other business goals. Each week, he interviews some of the nation’s top thought leaders and experts, sharing meaningful tips and advice. Subscribe on iTunes and please leave a rating and review!

What does it take to move from thinking to doing, from planning to achieving? The Action Catalyst is a podcast built on the premise that real progress requires more than just motivation-it demands actionable insight. Each conversation features a different top leader or accomplished achiever, but the focus remains consistently practical: extracting the hard-earned lessons they learned on their way up. You’ll hear stories not just of success, but of the setbacks and plateaus that preceded it, with guests offering concrete strategies for navigating those inevitable challenges. This isn’t about abstract theory; it’s a resource for anyone feeling stuck in mediocrity or unsure of their next step in business, personal development, or their professional journey. The discussions are designed to help you uncover a more personal source of inspiration and then translate that into a clearer path forward. Tune in for a regular dose of candid advice and proven methods to help dismantle obstacles and reach your specific goals. The Action Catalyst is produced by the Southwestern Family of Podcasts, part of the Southwestern Family of Companies, and delivers these conversations with the understanding that sustained action is the most powerful catalyst for change. You’ll find each episode centers on a transferable idea or a shift in perspective that you can apply immediately, making the podcast a tool for ongoing education and self-improvement.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

The Action Catalyst
Podcast Episodes
CLIP:  Innovation Hesitation and the Aerodynamics of Creativity [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 4:13
Richard Braden and Dr. Tessa Forshaw, innovation educators from Stanford, explain how “innovation hesitation” holds people back, and explain how the tools of creativity are a lot like the ones you use to pilot an airplan…
CLIP:  Your Difference Is Your Destiny [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:28
DeVon Franklin—Hollywood producer, New York Times bestselling author, and leadership expert— explains how the things that make you UNcommon, are the very keys to your success....but getting comfortable with them is the c…
CLIP:  Don't Negotiate Like Elon Musk [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 4:40
Pay negotiation expert John Gates, explains why Elon Musk can afford to employ a very specific negotiation tactic which the average job seeker should very much NOT utilize...Hear John's full interview in his very special…
CLIP:  Conditioned Tendencies and Diminishers [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 3:49
Preston Smiles, personal development leader, author, and speaker, breaks down the concepts of conditioned tendencies and diminishers, and how each one can lead to an incomplete understanding of our own control, and an in…
Act Your Wage, with John Gates | (Salary, Pay, Hiring, Negotiation) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 25:41
Pay negotiation expert John Gates, author of "Act Your Wage", shares proven salary negotiation strategies to help professionals increase compensation by 10–20% without risk or confrontation. Drawing on decades of experie…
CLIP:  Antipatterns and Artificial Ownership [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 4:51
Phil Le-Brun, former McDonald’s VP and International CIO and current AWS leader, shares how companies can avoid common “anti-patterns” like excessive bureaucracy and rigid structures, and defines what "artificial ownersh…
CLIP:  "It Calms Down Your Mind" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:00
Professional coach Shelly Smith shares one of the most common complaints she hears from her coaching clients, and the simple exercise that she uses to combat it.Hear Shelly's full interview in Episode 175 of The Action C…